Orwell's powerful warning in '1984' a reality in 2017?

Published
4:00 pm CDT, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

To the editor:

In 1949 George Orwell published a novel, "1984," that was set in Russia under Stalin and was meant as a warning to all future readers. That novel has been and is still taught in many schools across our nation. (Barnes and Noble in The Woodlands Mall has a table stacked with required reading books for our schools that has two editions of 1984, one from 2016.)

A startling quote from Part Two, Chapter 5 should cause us concern:

"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless Present in which the Party is always right."

In the Preface of my 1981 edition, Walter Cronkite said: "It has been said that 1984 fails as a prophecy because it succeeded as a warning --Orwell's terrible vision has been averted. Well, that kind of self-congratulation is, to say the least, premature. 1984 may not arrive on time, but there is always 1985." What would Cronkite say in 2017?

In the Appendix of the same 1981 edition Erich Fromm, a German psychologist and sociologist, said:

"Orwell wants to warn us ... he still hopes ... The hope can be realized only by recognizing, so 1984 teaches us, the danger with which all men are confronted today, the danger of a society of automatons who will have lost every trace of individuality, of love, of critical thought, and yet who will not be aware of it because of "doublethink". Books like Orwell's are powerful warnings and it would be most unfortunate if the reader smugly interpreted 1984 as another description of Stalinist barbarism, and if he does not see that it means US too." (In the novel Newspeak alters the truth in publications and on radio.) Any of this sound familiar?

Donna Gossett

The Woodlands

(Former College English Teacher)

Send the dreamers home

To the editor:

Send the dreamers home, get them out of my country. They have had 15-18 or more years to study, take the test to become citizens, yet they have proven they want to remain citizens of their mother country so let them. Just send them home.

They have sucked up on the good things this country has to offer, the things we have fought wars to have and keep, and what have they done? Just enjoyed our life.

Send them back to their own country so they can make that country great. We do not need leaches in this country.

Charlie Griffith

Montgomery

Illegal is illegal

To the editor:

I've been keeping up with the latest editorials with regard to DACA and how it is tied to immigration. It seems, even though those children followed their parents to this country that somehow their actions should be overlooked and allow them to follow after higher education and whatever else they pursue merely because they are here by not of their own choosing. I have a question, what part of breaking federal law is OK and by whom is it OK to break it?

All liberals want them to become legal so they can keep other liberal-minded nimrods in office, that's all. How can someone be here illegally and still be able to qualify for programs and services that true citizens have a hard time qualifying for? Someone answer that dubious question.

It is for sure that even though a person breaks a law, it is still being broken, would you not agree? So, even though Gov. Perry wouldn't do anything about a similar law, it still is not right that we allow such disobedience.

Neighbor, what is it with liberal-minded people that allows such blatant disregard for our laws and undermine our way of life. An illegal is still illegal regardless of the age and is robbing us of our livelihood and laughing all the way down the street.